Yesterday morning, it started raining in my bathroom. With no warning, water starts pouring out of the exhaust fan and heat lamp. :eek: At least I wasn’t under it at the time. And, as a point for guys that like to leave the seat up, the leak was directly over the toilet, and largely went into the toilet, rather than all over the floor.
Ran upstairs to bang on the neighbor’s door to see what they’re up to - did the toilet or tub overflow? Kids playing in the bathtub? No response. I go back down and call the landlord. He shows up and also has no luck upstairs. At least he knows their schedule and that they’ll be home usually at 5:30, so he says he’ll be back at 6 or so. Meanwhile, the bathroom ceiling has started to bubble and sag, and several feet away, broken through. Water’s draining out of the new hole now. Internally, water’s running down inside the wall and paint’s bubbling up on the wall. The wall I had painted not two months ago. :mad:
Cut to 6:00. I’m back home from work, and the landlord re-appears to say the upstairs people aren’t home. Just then, I hear them stomping around. They just got in. He goes up and can’t get anything definite from them, so he goes back to the bathroom to try finding where the water’s coming from.
By now, the plaster/sheetrock has the strength of oatmeal, so it’s easy to pull down and find the source. Sure enough, the upstairs tub drain is leaking. The pipe itself has gone bad - not just a case of leaking joints. For whatever reasons (probably related to trade unions, more than actual public safety) sewer lines in San Francisco are quite often required to be done in copper, rather than the do-it-yourselfable plastics. Very difficult and expensive stuff to deal with. There are holes in the underside of this copper drain line - the copper has simply corroded away. Now the question is - once my landlord repairs the pipe, what’s going to prevent future leaks elsewhere? What made the pipe corrode in the first place?
And how do plumbing catastrophes know when you’re planning to have a formal party in two days? We have overnight guests arriving tomorrow, and the event itself is on Saturday, promising an apartment filled with 30 or so people. The bathroom is now a disaster, with chunks of plaster on the floor, open ceiling joists, moisture everywhere and a lovely damp and moldy smell. AUGH!!